The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-10-21

sleep, or they are troubled. and they take 1t
to make them obliyions, or they feel
good, aud they must celebrate their
hilarity. They begin with mint julep
sucked through two straws on the Long
Branch piazza and end In the ditch,
taking from jug liquid half kerosene and
half whisky They not only like 1t, but 1t Is an
all consuming passion Of body, mind and soul,
and after while have it they win, though
one wine glass cost the temporal and eternal
destruction OF themselves, and all their fami-
lies, and the whole human race. They would
say: al am sorry It is going to cost me, and
my family, and all the worlds population so
very much, but here it goes TO my lips, and
now let It roll over my parched tongue and
down my heated throat, the sweetest, the
most inspiring, the most rapturous thing
that ever thrilled mortal or immortal |"
To cure the habit before It comes to
its last stages, various plans were tried in
olden times. This plan was recommended in
the books: When a man wanted to reform he
put.shot or bullets into the cup or glass OF
strong drink-one additional shot or bullet
each day, that displaces so much liquor.
Bullet after bullet, added day by day, OF
course the liquor became less and less until
the bullets would entirely ill up the glass and
there was no room for the liquid, and by that
time it was said the inebriate would be cured
Whether any one ever was cured in that way
know not, but by long experiment 1t Is
found that the only way Is to stop short of,
and when a man does that he needs God to
help him. And there have been more cases
than you can count when God has so helped
the man that he quit forever, and / could
count score of them here today, some Of
them pillars in the house Of God,
One would suppose that men would take
warning from some of the ominous names
given to the intoxicants, and stand of from
the devastating influence, You have noticed,
for instance, that some Of the restaurants are
called "The Shades" typical of the fact that
it puts mans reputation In the shade, and
mis- morals in the shade, and his prosperity in
the shade, and his wife and children in the
shade, and his immortal destiny in the shade
Now, find on some of the liquor signs
in all our cities the words "Old Crow"
nightly suggestive Of a carcass, and the
filthy raven that swoops upon it. "Old CrowP
Men and women without numbers slain Of
rum but unburied, and this evil is pecking at
their glazed eyes, and pecking at their bloated
cheek, and pecking at their destroyed man
hood and womanhood, thrusting beak and
claw into the mortal remains Of what once
was gloriously alive but now morally dead.
"Old Crown But alas, how many take
no warning. They make me think Of
Caesar on his way to assassination, fearing
nothing; though his statue in the hall crashed
into fragments at his feet, and a scroll con-
tanning the names of the conspirators was
thrust into his hands, yet walking right on to
meet the dagger that was to take his life.
This infatuation of strong drink is SO mighty
in many a man that, though his fortunes are
crashing, and his health is crashing, and his
domestic interests are crashing, and we hand
him long scroll containing the names Of
perils that await him, he goes straight on to
physical, and mental, and moral assassination.
In proportion as any style of alcoholism is
pleasant to your taste, and stimulating to
your nerves, and for time delightful to all
your physical and mental constitution, is the
peril awful Remember Jonathan and the
forbidden honey in the woods of Beth-aven.
Furthermore, the gamester's indulgence
must be put to the list of temptations deli
cious but destructive. I have crossed the
ocean eight times, and always one of the best
rooms has, from morning till late at night,
been given up to gambling practices. heard
of many men who went on board with enough
without enough money to get their baggage
up to the hotel or railroad station, To many
there is a complete fascination in games Of
hazard or the risking of money on possibili-
ties. 1t seems as natural for them to bet as
to eat. Indeed, the hunger for food is often
overpowered with the hunger for wagers, as
in the case of Lord Sandwich, a persistent
gambler, who, not being willing to leave the
60. -
invented preparation of food that he could
take without stopping the game-namely, a
slice OF beef between two slices of bread,
which was named after Lord Sandwich. 1t
is absurd for those or Us who have never felt
the fascination of the wager to speak slight
ingly of the temptation. 1t has slain null
titude of intellectual and moral giants, men
and women stronger than you or L Down
under its power went glorious Oliver Gold
smith, and Gibbon, the historian, and Charles
Fox, the statesman, and in olden times ia
nous senator's of the United States, who used
to be as regularly at the gambling house all
night as they were in the halls of legislation
by day Oh, the tragedies Of the faro tablet
1 know persons who began With a slight
stake in ladies' parlor, and ended with
the suicides pistol at Monte Carlo. They
played with the square pieces of bone with
black marks on them, not knowing that
Satan was playing for their bones at the same
time, and was sure to sweep all the stakes of
on his side of the table. The last New York
legislature sanctioned the mighty evil last
spring by passing law for its defense at the
race tracks, and many young men in these
cities lost all their wages at Coney Island
this summer, and this fall are borrowing
from the money tills of their employers or
arranging by means of false entry to adjust
their demoralized finances. Every man who
voted for the Ives pool bill has on his hands
and forehead the blood of these souls.
But in this connection some young converts
say to me: as it right to play cardsG Is there
any harm in a game of whist or euchreq'
Well, / know good men who play whist and
euchre and other styles of game without any
wagers / had friend who played cards
with his wife and children, and then at the
close said: "Come, now, let us have prayers.
will not judge other mems consciences, but
l tell you that cards are, in my mind, so as
ISOLATED with the temporal and eternal dam
nation of splendid young men, that I should
no sooner say to my family: "Come, let us
have game of cards" than would go into
menagerie and say: "Come, let US have a
game of rattlesnakes," or into a cemetery,
and sitting down by a marble slab, say to
the grave diggers: "Come, let us have a game
Of skulls" Conscientious young ladies are
silently saying to me while speak: "Do you
think card playing will do us any harmT'
Perhaps not, but how will you feel If in the
great day of eternity, when we are asked to
give an account of our influence, some man
shall say to you: II was introduced to games
of chance in the year 1887, in Brooklyn, at
your house, and went on from that sport to
something more exciting and went on down
until lost my business, and lost my morals,
and lost my soul, and these chains that you
see on my wrists and feet are the chains of a
gamesters doom, and am on my way to a
gamblers hell" Honey at the start, eternal
catastrophe at the last
Stock gambling comes into the same cata-
logue. 1t must be very celebrating to go
into Wall street, New York, or State street,
Boston, or Third street, Philadelphia, and de-
posting a small sum of money, run the risk
of taking out fortune. Many men are do
ing an honest and safe business In the stock
market, and you are an ignoramus II you do
not know that it Is just as legitimate to
deal in stocks as to deal in coffee, or sugar,
or -four. But nearly all the outsiders who
go there on q little financial excursion lose
all The old spiders eat up the unsuspecting
flies had a friend who put his hand on
his hip pocket and said to me IN substance:
II have there the value of hundred and
or y thousand dollars" his home Is today
penniless. What was the matterl Wall
street OF the vast majority who are victim
lied you hear not one word, One great stock
firm goes down, and whole columns of news
papers discuss their fraud, or their dis
aster, and We are presented with their
features and their biography. But where
one such famous firm sinks FIVE hundred un-
known men dnk with them. The great
steamer goes down and all the little boats
are swallowed in the same engulfment. Gam
bling is gambling, whether in stocks or
hI.ondstrIfEs di,a o.. rnon A.aol. hoAti....